I’m the author of 25 children’s books, and I recently moved to a small mountain town that has come to co-exist with wild black bears by learning how to properly store and dispose of our food (rather than the alternative, which was to eliminate the bears!). Ever since I’ve lived there, I’ve been fascinated by human-bear interactions, having a few of my own now! When Yosemite Conservancy put out a call for children’s stories, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about—how people can help keep bears safe and wild through proper food storage. I’m a huge advocate for bears and all wildlife!
Years ago, a bear stole all my food on a backpacking trip, despite tying the food in a tall pine tree (bears are persistent when they know food is at hand—or should I say “paw”!). This book is written to teach toddlers and their families about food storage so this doesn’t happen to them, and helps keep bears wild.
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So Big! Yosemite was the first board book I had read that is sold by Yosemite Conservancy. I thought, “I wish I had written this book” because it perfectly captures what small children feel when they visit Yosemite National Park. It features a black bear throughout the story, with a repeating question, “How big is so big!” From black bears to El Capitan to Tuolumne Meadows, everything in Yosemite National Park is “so big!” to little ones.
National Geographic Look & Learn Bears is a perfect introduction to bears for toddlers. As a former Montessori preschool teacher, I appreciate the simplicity of the text, photographs, and book design. The book shows five common types of bears (black, brown, polar, pandas, and sun bears). Each bear is shown over two-page spreads and gives one interesting fact that would appeal to the toddler crowd. I could just see my own son at that age enjoying this book.
What I love about Nat Geo’s All About Bears Pre-Reader is that it’s the perfect “next bear book” after a board book (those books typically written for toddlers). Because the book is a pre-reader, the text is simple enough for a 2-3-year-old to understand. In true Nat Geo style, the text is simple, and the book’s design and the photographs are excellent. It really is a terrific book for very young children who want to learn more about bears.
I recommend If You Were a Bear for two big reasons. First, I love that near the end, it addresses proper food storage and why it’s problematic for wild bears to develop a taste for human food. This is the basis of my own book. It’s incredibly important to the survival of bears that humans be vigilant about proper food storage and disposal. The other reason I recommend If You Were a Bear is because the rhyming text opens with the imaginative question, What would it be like to wake up being a bear cub? We know children love to stretch their imaginations! Once the premise is introduced, the story goes on to show a cub’s first year of life.
What I found most enjoyable about If I Were a Bear is that it uses a rhyming text to share simple facts about various Alaskan bears. It’s a lovely combination of lyrical writing and nonfiction, with soft watercolor illustrations by Erik Brooks. Young children love hearing rhyming texts (their brains actually need rhythm and patterns for healthy development!), so whenever I find a book with well-written rhyme that conveys factual information, it’s a winner in my book!
5,309 authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about bears, toddlers, and park rangers.
We think you will like Bear in the Back Seat, Zen Shorts, and East if you like this list.
From Karen's list on the best books about national park adventures and misadventures.
If you’re in the mood for a lighthearted book about the national parks, Bear in the Backseat is an entertaining look at the experiences of a wildlife ranger at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It contains a variety of humorous anecdotes mixed with more sobering tales. This book will open your eyes to the difficulty in managing both wildlife and park visitors. It contains a variety of humorous anecdotes mixed with more sobering tales.
From Whitney's list on the best books on mindfulness and self-acceptance for young children.
I adore this picture book and return to it often, to read to myself or to share with children. The story of three children meeting Stillwater, a peaceful panda, is fresh and fun. Stillwater teaches each child through an ancient story. The tone of the book and Muth’s illustrations perfectly reflect the concepts of stillness, self-awareness, self-acceptance, and non-judgment.
Jon Muth says it best when he writes in his author’s note: “’Zen Shorts’ are short meditations—ideas to puzzle over—tools which hone our ability to act with intuition. They have no goal, but they often challenge us to reexamine our habits, desires, concepts, and fears.”
From Joanna's list on the best young adult fairytale retellings.
A retelling of the Norwegian fairytale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”, East—also called North Child—is the book that introduced me to this fairytale, and is still one of my absolute favorites. It follows the story of Rose, whose superstitious mother insists she’s an “East” child, not a wild and unpredictable “North” child. When Rose agrees to go and live with a talking white bear to save her family from poverty, she finds herself in a magical house, and is strangely drawn to the white bear. Told in alternating POVs—including one from the Bear, which reads like sparse, free verse poetry—this book is glittering, bright, and beautiful.
